For the second straight year, Arkansas’ run in the SEC Tournament ends in the semifinals. The Hogs never looked good in an 82-64 loss to Texas A&M.

The Razorbacks’ poor shooting carried over from the quarterfinal against LSU, but now the Hogs added uncharacteristic turnovers. The Hogs seemed largely unprepared for the Aggies’ no-middle defense (which we examined in-depth in the preview) as they repeatedly made bad passes, often to a spot where there was no Arkansas player. The first half was ugly for a while, but the Aggies finally got hot from 3 and built a 36-24 halftime lead.

It looked like Arkansas would able to take advantage of Aggie fatigue, attacking with more aggression and cutting the lead first to 41-36 and then to 47-44. But turnovers reared their ugly head again, and the Aggies rebuilt a double-digit lead that they would not relinquish.

Stanley Umude was a lone bright spot for Arkansas, scoring 20 points and knocking down all three of Arkansas’ 3-point field goals. JD Notae was held to five points as he struggled with foul trouble, while Jaylin Williams had four points, nine rebounds, and an uncharacteristic five turnovers. Au’Diese Toney had 18 points. Arkansas had just four offensive rebounds against 15 turnovers.

For the Aggies, Quenton Jackson continued his great play, scoring 20 points and adding five rebounds and six assists. Texas A&M held the Hogs to just four offensive rebounds and 18 attempted free throws, cutting off two key sources of Arkansas offense.

Instant Analysis

So what did we learn from this debacle?

It shouldn’t impact seeding

It’s embarrassing, sure, but this loss is unlikely to impact the Hogs, who probably locked up a 4-seed with yesterday’s win over LSU. Most other candidates for a 4-seed — Texas, Providence, UConn, Illinois — all lost without reaching their conference title game. Arkansas would have liked to compete for an SEC tournament title, but even winning it likely would not have been a 3-seed, as Joe Lunardi has repeatedly said that Arkansas is quite a bit behind the top 12-14 teams.

Of course, this is kind of the problem with Texas A&M’s run. The Aggies have been playing great in Tampa… but they were an NIT team all season long. They drew Florida — a team whose NCAA Tournament hopes had just been crushed in the season finale against Kentucky, a fact I noted when previewing that game — and then they drew Auburn, who has already hung the SEC title banner in the rafters and has nothing to prove in this tournament. And then Arkansas, who is stuck on the 4-line regardless of this result and probably Sunday’s as well. The Aggies simply had more to play for and they played like it. Smaller conference tournaments are fun, power conference tournaments are largely meaningless, but they get TV views.

No help from the stripes

Expanding on the Aggies’ NCAA tournament hopes, how’s this for optics? SEC commissioner Greg Sankey starts his day on the SEC Network proudly declaring that the conference wants as many NCAA teams as possible, and then the first game of the day — the only one involving a bubble team — is officiated like that. No conspiracy allegations from me, but man, the SEC truly does not care what it looks like.

There are individual calls that we can highlight — Jaylin Williams getting hit in the mouth on a rebound for no call, Trey Wade getting mauled at the rim to start the second half for no call, Notae’s third foul, Chris Lykes getting knocked down on a 3-point attempt with no call, Williams taking a bent arm to the face when going up for a shot when the Hogs were down just 7, again with no call. But we can also just look at the numbers.

Arkansas entered the game #2 in the SEC in drawing fouls and #3 in free throw attempted rate. Texas A&M committed fouls at the third-highest rate and gave up free throws at the second-highest. For the game, the Aggies were whistled for 16 fouls, two of which came in the final two minutes after the game was out of reach. Those 16 fouls are the third-fewest against the Aggies in an SEC game this year and the third-fewest against an Arkansas opponent in an SEC game this year. Texas A&M was called for 28 and 23 fouls in the first two meetings. The Aggies’ five first-half fouls are the fewest by Texas A&M or by an Arkansas opponent in any SEC game this year.

Arkansas’ 18 attempted free throws are tied for fourth-fewest in an SEC game this year by the Hogs and the fifth-fewest allowed in an SEC game this year by Texas A&M. The Hogs shot 29 and 25 in the first two meetings.

After watching, it really feels like Texas A&M is kind of an anti-LSU on defense: the Tigers foul non-stop but look sloppy while doing it, while the Aggies foul non-stop but look confident while doing it. That makes a big difference in convincing the officials to put the whistle away.

None of this suggests Arkansas had one “stolen” from them — I mean honestly, did you watch? When no one but Umude can hit a 3-pointer, when the Hogs are flinging passes into the stands, when Lykes has to play significant minutes but scores just one point while dribbling the ball all over the court, the officials aren’t going to rob you blind. But intelligent people are capable of holding multiple thoughts in their head at once, so “don’t complain about the officials, we played bad, end of story” isn’t good analysis. There is, in fact, a reason to discuss the bad officiating beyond sour grapes.

Can Arkansas win if the officials let ’em play?

If there’s any big concern that this game highlights, I think it’s the question of whether Arkansas can win a game against a physical opponent if the officials aren’t going to call fouls. We’ve discussed at length here on this site that Arkansas does not shoot well (211th in Effective Field Goal %), but does everything else well on offense: offensive rebounding (105th), avoiding turnovers (28th), and getting to the line (33rd). Arkansas obviously did none of these well on Saturday, but what if the “getting to the line” thing becomes an issue in an NCAA Tournament game? A slow whistle could be a problem for a team that just doesn’t shoot the ball well. These are the kinds of games Arkansas will lose.

Jaylin Williams needs to come back

Arkansas’ big man was bad again on Saturday, his third bad game in the last four. Three of his five turnovers were passes to nowhere, so it might be that the intended recipient of the pass was at fault for not being in the right place. He did not look comfortable controlling the ball on the high post, which is an issue, because it’s key to how Arkansas plays. He passed up several opportunities to put the ball on the floor and create a high-percentage shot, although again, the way the game was officiated under the rim might have given him pause.